Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the custard base
Sweeten the milk with sugar and add a few grains of salt.
Pour the boiling milk over the bread crumbs and add butter.
Cover with a plate and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Stir in the whisked eggs and flavoring of nutmeg or lemon rind.
Cook
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold or basin that holds 1½ pints.
Tie a paper and cloth tightly over the mold and boil for exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding when cooked.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the hot milk and form the body and structure of the pudding.
- Milk
- Soaks into the crumbs and provides moisture for a tender, custard-like texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the milk and adds flavor to the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that softens the crumb and carries flavor.
The step that matters
Let the crumbs soak before adding eggs. Soaking lets the bread fully absorb the hot milk, so the crumbs swell and soften. Adding eggs to unsoaked crumbs can leave dry pockets and an uneven texture once the eggs set during boiling.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, bread, butter, egg):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Parsleyfits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, bread, butter, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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